Protective child safety seats for use in vehicles are now the norm in many places around the world. In the United States, many states have laws requiring the use of child safety seats. For younger infants, the child safety seat is placed in the seat of the vehicle facing backwards, i.e., opposite the usual forward movement of the vehicle. The infant is left to see primarily the back of the vehicle seat and the vehicle's ceiling. Without more, this view does not amuse most infants for very long. Various efforts have been made to provide entertainment or amusement for infants that are placed in child safety seats.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,745, and entitled “infant toy,” describes a tube arrangement for suspending items in front of an infant in a child seat. The arms attach to the car seat by adhesive plates and thumbscrews. The toy suspends playing objects such as bells, mirrors, stars, or any other objects that are attractive to the infant from rubber springs. The tube system requires mechanical attachment to the car seat itself.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,768, entitled “educationally correlative amusement device,” presents a device for amusing young children in a child safety seat. The device attaches directly to a bar of a child safety seat with a strap.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,219, entitled, “infant safety seat attachment,” describes an attachment in the form of a wrap-around cover that is fitted to a child safety seat. The cover contains various items (e.g., stuffed toy, teething rings, rattles, etc.) for amusing the infant.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,454, entitled “amusement center for rear facing infant child seats,” describes an amusement center that is supported by clips or straps that rests against the back of a car seat. The amusement center may contain photographs, pictures, stuffed dolls, etc. It appears to be a static display.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,335, entitled “suspended display arrangement for vehicles,” describes a device that rests on the back of a car seat in front of a child safety seat. The device includes an opaque back panel, a clear front panel, and a number of display units such as decorative articles that are suspended from short tether elements between the panels. The display units are configured to swing freely back and forth between the panels, i.e., in a two-dimensional plane, in response to the vehicle moving.